Indian Government Spent Rs 4.5Cr In 2010-11 For Digitization & Modernization Of Public Libraries

Kumari Selja, the Minister for Culture and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, has informed the Parliament of India that Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture and a nodal agency of Indian government for promoting library services in India, provides financial help to state government and NGOs maintained libraries to modernise and renovate public libraries under matching and non-matching schemes.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, the minister also added that they have undertaken several projects to modernize, renovate and preserve libraries that comes under the Ministry of culture. These projects include digitization of old and rare books including various manuscripts, conserving and preserving these old and rare books and manuscripts using modern techniques, providing online access to the full texts and scholarly journals and maintaining an online public access catalog for library users.

The minister stated that RRRLF has released two separate grants to public libraries worth Rs 4.5 crores (Rs 4,53,29,800) and Rs 10 crore (Rs 10,19,94,316) in the year 2010-11 for modernization and building renovation purposes, respectively. The agency had previously released similar grants in 2009-10 and 2008-09 for the same purposes as indicated by the table below.